... You won’t be able to snaffle up the monument’s resources even then - lurking Elder Guardians will cast Mining Fatigue on you, leaving you unable to heave your pickaxe effectively. You’ll have to seek them in the labyrinth and eliminate them one by one to be free of its effects. Alternatively, milk is a useful antidote - just make sure you pack a few buckets of the stuff!

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Three elder guardians spawn naturally during the generation of each ocean monument: one in the top room of the monument and the other two in each wing section of the monument. They will not respawn after their initial spawn, thus there are a limited number of them per world. Elder guardians spawned with monuments do not naturally despawn, although they will be removed along with other hostile mobs in peaceful difficulty.

Additionally, the elder guardian has a 50% chance of dropping a raw fish (or cooked fish if killed while on fire), a 33% chance of dropping a prismarine crystal instead, and a 16.7% chance of dropping neither. The maximum drop count is increased by one per level of Looting enchantment.

In addition to its normal fish drop, the elder guardian has a 2.5% chance of dropping a random fish as a rare drop when killed by the player. The type of fish is the same as when fishing: 60% chance for raw fish, 25% chance for raw salmon, 2% chance for clownfish, and 13% chance for pufferfish. The chance of getting a rare drop is increased by 1 percentage point per level of Looting. When dropped as a rare drop, the fish is not cooked if the elder guardian is killed while on fire.

Elder guardians do not swim around as much as normal guardians, but otherwise act the same as regular guardians both in water and on land. Elder guardians will NOT swim away when approached by a player it is targeting, unlike regular guardians. Like normal guardians, elder guardians will attempt to attack both the player and squid.

The elder guardian's eye follows and stares at any nearby players, and always looks directly at its target. The eye still follows and attacks a completely unarmored player under the effects of a potion of invisibility. It seems that their eyes are coded to simply track to closest player, as they also follow players in spectator mode.

The elder guardian has several methods of attack, including firing its laser, inflicting mining fatigue, and a defensive thorn-like attack.

The laser takes several seconds to charge, doing no damage and allowing the player to move away in the meantime, and changing from purple to bright yellow. Once charged, the beam abruptly ends and deals 8 () damage on normal difficulty. The elder guardian will swim around for a few seconds before firing again. The beam cannot be dodged, and has a maximum range of approximately 14 blocks. Once the player is out of range, or if the beam is obstructed by solid blocks, the guardian's beam will disengage from the player, and deal no damage.

Once each minute, the elder guardian will search for players in a 50-block radius who are not afflicted with mining fatigue III for a minute or longer. The players found will be inflicted with mining fatigue III for 5 minutes, and a ghostly image of the elder guardian will appear to the player, accompanied with a ghastly noise. This attack can target players through blocks, even when there is no path to that player (e.g., players who are underground), and target unarmored players under the effects of a potion of invisibility. The image of the elder guardian is a particle effect that can be recreated by issuing the command /particle mobappearance.

Elder guardians deal 2 () of damage every time it is hit when its spikes are extended. If cornered, the elder guardian will usually extend its spikes and fire at the player, even at point blank range.

Drop chances for raw fish and prismarine crystals changed. Instead of a 33% chance of fish then a 33% chance of crystals only if the fish drop failed with both percentages adjusted by Looting, it's 40% fish, 40% crystals, and 20% neither, with the amount increased by Looting.

The elder guardian's eye is actually the "head" part of the mob's model, giving the illusion of a dynamic eye.

The elder guardian texture has the name "jeb" on it.

According to Jeb, elder guardians were introduced to encourage players to solve the temple maze rather than dig through it easily. He acknowledges there are ways around it, but, nevertheless, players still have to solve the challenge in a different way.[1]

Also according to Jeb, the "jump scare" by elder guardian is unintentional, instead he added it to provide a visual cue as to why players get slowed down by mining fatigue.[1]

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